Sharp Memory LCD breakout- boards arrived

My boards from OSH arrived a while back, so here are some pictures.  The next step is getting the code running to test the display, though I may try feeding it some serial  goodness from Bus Pirate as a test. So far it appears that the first test run of DipTrace tools and OSH Park service went pretty well!

Bare boards from OSH Park, in their requisite color! Both sides look pretty good.

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DipTrace layout and ordering boards from Dorkbot aka OSH Park

Well, my test design is complete and now I need a few prototypes to play with. The usual ways of ordering PCBs are rather expensive, with just tooling fees in hundreds of dollars. The remaining options are a few China based places such as Itead Studio, Seeed Studio ,PCB Pool and Batch PCB ran by Sparkfun, and an OSH Park ran by Laen from Dorkbot. He runs a community PCB service that groups orders and orders them periodically on a common panel, sharing costs between all people. The cost is very reasonable ($5 a square inch) and you get three boards. So a 2 square inches board in three copies will cost you $10 delivered from a US based board house! That definitely opens the door for quick prototyping of pretty much anything! After having used other company’s prototyping services, I must say OSH is also by far the most user friendly. Lets walk through the steps of ordering these boards. Continue reading